June 29 th – The sun shone on the pitch as VCC prepared the wickets and the boundary for their rematch against worthy opponents HBS.
HBS won the toss and decided to bat the first thirty overs on a pitch that was not fully dried from the morning’s dew. VCC’s captain and talented bowler, Jacobus Nel, opened VCC’s bowling from the scorer’s end, and was backed up with some steady bowling from the other end by Elliot Hammond. VCC’s bowling continued to run well through the overs with a maiden over and a wicket from Ben Harbidge, and great spin bowling from Sachall Rehman. Wickets started to come naturally when Nirav Kulkarni was introduced in the bowling attack and he ended HBS’ innings prematurely on the fifth ball of the 29 th over when the ball flung the bails off the stumps flying right over wicket keeper Elliot’s head.
HBS ended their batting innings with a very respectable 188 all out. Good fielding from Crispijn making a great return after many years absence from the team meant that HBS’ score stayed below 200.
VCC’s batting at the start of the innings was a good sign from the team with captain Jacobus and partner Sachall opening the batting. The captain’s bat was ended soon after with Tanveer Khawaja coming in as the blood replacement at number three. Sachall who batted valiantly before getting out for 32 off an unlucky stumping, which brought the captain back to the crease. His innings was cut short after a peach of a ball from a HBS bowler led to the ball just hitting the top of the stumps. Hidde Vrieze batting at number 4 stepped onto the pitch. Tanveer retired shortly after that, having hit a beautiful 61 runs of 51 balls retired which made way for number 5 Nirav. Hidde and Nirav completed the run chase with some excellent running and good energy. VCC got the 189 runs in 25 overs and won by 5 wickets. After everything had been packed up, both teams returned to the clubhouse for a well-deserved lunch.
